Anybody Remember Back When?

[Industrial Toys]

I'll bet that bell rarely rang at an opportune time. People probably made a dash in there when they saw no one at the pumps. I know I would.

 

[ovrszd]

What a small world...we did the same thing! On Saturday nights if we didn't have a date, the guys would go to town, pool their change, buy a couple bucks worth of gas and go to the drive in in Enid. Fifty cents to get in to the movie, a coke and a hamburger was about fifty cents also if I remember correctly.

Hey Oklahoma guy, how about the McAlister Prison Rodeo. I'm sure not many have witnessed anything like that!!!! My Aunt and Uncle took me the Summer of '69.

 

[dragoneggs]

Just before self serve showed up, the norm was a two bay service station. You would drive over the bell hose and the owner or mechanic would stop what he was doing, wipe his hands on the rag in his back pocket, fill you up, check the oil and wash your windows.

I forgot about the bell hose! I do remember the million or so different fan belts hanging on the walls in the service bays... that always amazed me.

 

[ovrszd]

I forgot about the bell hose! I do remember the million or so different fan belts hanging on the walls in the service bays... that always amazed me.

So you never repeatedly jumped on the hose until the owner came out and ran you off??? :grumpy::grumpy:

 

[Industrial Toys]

And the nickle dispenser with salted nuts and jelly beans in the counter part of the place. The floors were always red in the bays it seemed. I thought I had the tiger by the tail when I bought one of those oil can spouts at an early version of a dollar store, and don't think I ever saw an oil can after that. Just threw it out a few weeks ago.

 

[k0ua]

And the nickle dispenser with salted nuts and jelly beans in the counter part of the place. The floors were always red in the bays it seemed. I thought I had the tiger by the tail when I bought one of those oil can spouts at an early version of a dollar store, and don't think I ever saw an oil can after that. Just threw it out a few weeks ago.

I had just forgotten about oil can spouts, and there you go and remind me of those nasty things.

 

[om21braz]

And the nickle dispenser with salted nuts and jelly beans in the counter part of the place. The floors were always red in the bays it seemed. I thought I had the tiger by the tail when I bought one of those oil can spouts at an early version of a dollar store, and don't think I ever saw an oil can after that. Just threw it out a few weeks ago.

And betting on who would get a Coke (6oz. bottle) from the further distance away (location of bottom of bottle). A good argument on this would finish with a call to the local trucking company dispatcher.

 

[k0ua]

And betting on who would get a Coke (6oz. bottle) from the further distance away (location of bottom of bottle). A good argument on this would finish with a call to the local trucking company dispatcher.

Tell me what was on the bottom of every Sprite bottle of that era? If you can

 

[dragoneggs]

Tell me what was on the bottom of every Sprite bottle of that era? If you can

National Parks?

 

[k0ua]

National Parks?

Right you are. Each bottle featured one of 32 National parks or monuments.

 

[k0ua]

Right you are. Each bottle featured one of 32 National parks or monuments.

File that away in the useless facts department. That info and a couple of bucks will buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks... Well not a fancy one...

 

[Industrial Toys]

I thought Coffee, like a Pay Phone Call was a Dime! What are you trying to pull?

 

[dragoneggs]

Right you are. Each bottle featured one of 32 National parks or monuments.

I have a bottle in my shop somewhere. Got packed up with a few other oddity 'commemorative' label bottles when I collected that kind of stuff (before tools!). Now I am curious as to which park I have... I want to say the Olympic National Park here in Washington but I don't remember.

 

[k0ua]

I have a bottle in my shop somewhere. Got packed up with a few other oddity 'commemorative' label bottles when I collected that kind of stuff (before tools!). Now I am curious as to which park I have... I want to say the Olympic National Park here in Washington but I don't remember.

Whoops. looks like 36 parks and monuments.

The 36 parks are:
Acadia National Park
Big Bend National Park
Everglades National Park
Gettysburg National Military Park
Grand Canyon National Park
Mammoth Cave National Park
Olympic National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park
Saratoga National Historical Park
Sequoia National Park
Zion National Park
Hot Springs National Park
White Sands National Park
Isle Royale National Park
Great Smokey Mountains National Park
Ft. Sumter National Park
Shiloh National Military Park
Lincoln Memorial
Joshua Tree National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Glacier National Park
Crater Lake National Park
Wind Cave National Park
Mt. McKinley National Park
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
Hawaii National Park
Petrified Forest National Monument
George Washington Carver National Monument
Death Valley National Monument
Mound City Group National Monument
Scotts Bluff National Monument
Platt National Monument
Grand Teton National Park
Statue of Liberty National Monument
Chickamauga National Military Park

 

[MossRoad]

Right you are. Each bottle featured one of 32 National parks or monuments.

I did not know that. I remember Coke bottling plants, but never looked at Sprite bottles.

 

[ultrarunner]

As a kid in the 50's, I was fairly restricted by my parents. We never went to the drive-in hamburger joint. Both my parents though food prepared at home was much better for me. I was only allowed to have candy at very special occasions - and very little then. When the family rode together in the car - kids were to remain silent. Heck, it was that way, all the time. A child never spoke unless asked a direct question. Us kids would leave the parents in the living room - sneak into another room where we would talk to each other in whispers. There was never any yelling or shouting in the house. You always used your "inside" voice.

First day after school let out - mom would buy me a new pair of Levis & high top tennis shoes. They had, darn well, better last all summer. I ran around most of the summer bare foot.

Us kids knew exactly when each meal was prepared every day. Better be home & washed up or - no meal. We were NEVER allowed to have a carbonated beverage of any kind. There was water & milk.

We knew when the parents said something - that would be the very first/last time the parents would tell us. We darn well better do EXACTLY as told.

On EXTREMELY RARE occasions, as a kid, the phone call was for me. My dad would grill the caller - who was this, what do you want to speak to Johnny for/about. If the caller passed the grilling, and remained on the line - I was always told - "keep it short".


Heck - in those days - even the parents were not as "liberated" as the kids are today.

Do I remember back when???? H**L YES - a tour in Alcatraz would be hard to forget, also.

Sounds verbatim except the 1960's... but my Dad and Grandparents were products of the Depression and where seen as quite strict... I was 12 when I started paying into Social Security...

Got a summer job that paid $50 a week... based on $1.65 an hour... with that $50 I opened my own Bank of America Checking Account so I could cash my paycheck... didn't need a parent... branch manager said anyone old enough to earn a steady paycheck was old enough to open a Checking Account in his bank...

Of that $50... $20 went to the folks for room and board... my Dad did the same back in the Depression starting at 11. Another $20 stayed in my Account... $4 and change was deductions and the 5 and change was all mine and enough to buy a burger and shake 5 days each week.

I was 17 before I ever tasted a carbonated beverage... I know EVERYTIME I had ever ate out as a kid... it was something I waited all year for my birthday and my folks went out for Prime Rib... yep... once a year... and that was it... No fast food until I earned the money... my parents only went out on their anniversary... and Mom's birthday...

Once I repeated what I had heard and said ""Why don't you just shut up about it" to a 19 year old neighbor... saying shut up had my mouth washed out with bar soap and a month of punishment...

My parents worked hard... Dad was 6 days a week on the job and dinner was when he got home... never a question... if a late order came in he made the sale.

Telephone was off limits and to this day... can never remember my parents ever chatting with anyone on the phone... phone was for business.

That said... my siblings and I never had a brush with the law... were never truant, never totaled a car or gave them grief... when I questioned paying room and board at age 12... my Grandmother was right there backing them up saying just as my Dad did with earning from his paper route.

They did let me buy a car at age 13... Model A Ford... my own money earned and they both agreed it would be a productive way to learn and spend what free time I had... and it was... kept me off the streets of East Oakland... back in the Panther and Hells Angel Days...

My middle brother moved out the day after High School Graduation and been on his own every since... the youngest also moved out half way through his first semester in college...

 

[Bird]

And betting on who would get a Coke (6oz. bottle) from the further distance away (location of bottom of bottle). A good argument on this would finish with a call to the local trucking company dispatcher.

1959-60 we did that on our breaks when I was a clerk in the Dallas Post Office. I don't remember the exact salary when I was a temporary part time mail carrier while I was still in high school, but I know that my salary was an even $2 an hour with 10% night differential for all hours between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. when I started full time in Dallas. Cokes at that time cost a dime. In 1956, we were selling Cokes for a nickel and in 1957, the company sent a guy to convert the Coke machines to take 6 cents (nickel and penny), then only a short time later, they cane back and changed them again to take a dime.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Hey Oklahoma guy, how about the McAlister Prison Rodeo. I'm sure not many have witnessed anything like that!!!! My Aunt and Uncle took me the Summer of '69.

I have been to McAlester (Note: not as an inmate) several times, but never had the pleasure of going to the rodeo. We stay in the "Happy Days" motel there and attend a huge car show at nearby Wilburton in October.

 

[k0ua]

1959-60 we did that on our breaks when I was a clerk in the Dallas Post Office. I don't remember the exact salary when I was a temporary part time mail carrier while I was still in high school, but I know that my salary was an even $2 an hour with 10% night differential for all hours between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. when I started full time in Dallas. Cokes at that time cost a dime. In 1956, we were selling Cokes for a nickel and in 1957, the company sent a guy to convert the Coke machines to take 6 cents (nickel and penny), then only a short time later, they cane back and changed them again to take a dime.

For over half of my time in High School the School coke machine was a dime for a 10 oz bottle. When in the last year, they changed the machine to 15 cents. You should have heard the hue and cry that went up from the students to this "totally unfair" price increase. The school said they were tired of losing money at the ten cent rate and just had to increase the price. We all didn't believe it, and thought it a conspiracy. Welcome to the real world. Our young dreams of fairness and fair play were just shattered.

 

[jerrybob]

Just before self serve showed up, the norm was a two bay service station. You would drive over the bell hose and the owner or mechanic would stop what he was doing, wipe his hands on the rag in his back pocket, fill you up, check the oil and wash your windows.

Just this past Sept. my wife and I were taking a trailer trip...we ran into a station like you describe in Walla Walla Washington, two bays where they still did mechanical work....the bell hose and a kid that pumped your gas. Popped my head into the office....two guys sitting there with grease on their shirts. I told them I loved their gas station...said I hadn't seen an air hose at the pumps for many years. They laughed....said the air was still free. Asked for some directions....they told me....felt like I was back in the 60's. Great experience.